Chapter 10
Jane Shepard woke up to the infernal alarm beeping away in the spacious room. This time she mustered enough willpower to ignore the warm sheets and soft pillows, not wanting to oversleep by several hours again. She did some light stretches to help mend her body after what happened on Edolus. The exercise was followed by a quick trip to the showers and her morning routine was completed faster than she'd expected. She was a loss on what to do next now though. Late last night she had been contacted by The Council with news about who the asari working with Saren could be. Apparently it was believed that a matriarch named Benezia and they were stuck waiting on The Council to give them a destination that might lead them to her.
"Joker, has The Council contacted us yet about Benezia's whereabouts?" She asked as she made her way out of her quarters, fully dressed and ready for whatever the day might throw at her.
"Nope." And the day didn't seem to throw anything at her. She lightly coughed to give him the hint to keep some appearance of professionalism. "Nope, Commander." She touched the pad to call for the elevator and decided to keep talking with the pilot.
"Anything else to report that I should know about?"
"Uhm... Williams are giving the alien crew members some funny looks." Shepard sighed as the elevator arrived and she went into it. She would have to have a talk with Ashley sooner rather than later. "Also, Holt is a nice guy. Who would've thought?" Wait, what?
"You've spoken with him?"
"He came by last night and kept me company. Nice to see that someone appreciate what I do around here."
"You didn't give out any classified information I hope?" Shepard had been very conflicted about bringing Holt on board. On one hand he had saved them twice already and was quite good on the field. On the other, much bigger hand, he was working for an information broker. Even though if he was saying that was doing no such thing at the moment she still had a bad feeling. She had listened to her gut more than her brain and this time the two parts were in a deep conflict. Gut feeling still told her to trust him but her mind was sending major warning signals.
"He didn't even ask about the ship. He was asking about where I'm from and how I ended up on The Normandy."
"You're not worried he's trying to dig up something about you?" The pilot simply laughed.
"And what would he find that isn't already public? The impression I got from him does not match the rumors that had been going around about him yesterday, Commander." She had not expected Joker to open up to Holt, at least not this quickly. "Oh, hold on Commander..." He suddenly said, clearly distracted with something. "Speak of the devils, The Council has a message for you. It's on your terminal." Good, maybe they had a destination then.
"Thank you Joker." She said as the elevator reached its destination and she went straight for her terminal. Quickly opening the message and reading it she couldn't help but feel disappointed that they weren't going after Benezia at all. The matriarch had a daughter that should be on a planet called Therum, working on something involving the protheans. Maybe she could kill two birds with one stone in meeting up with this asari named Liara. Maybe she would be able to make some sense of this vision that Shepard got from Eden Prime. All this is assuming that Liara isn't working with her mother.
"Maybe you could kill two birds with one stone if we were to find this Liara?" A voice suddenly asked right next to Shepard's ear, causing her to give out a tiny yelp and throw her head around to the source of the voice. Holt was standing right next to her nonchalantly reading the message that The Council had sent her.
"Damn it Holt, you almost gave me a heart attack." She said as she took some deep breaths to calm herself. The man didn't seem to notice or care that he was intruding on her personal space.
"Almost? Damn, would've been the perfect crime." He said jokingly as he took a step back, maybe somehow noticing her discomfort.
"Was there anything you wanted?" She said while noticing the amount of glares they were receiving from the surrounding crew members. The amount of glares Holt was receiving, she corrected herself.
"Was just gonna ask where we were going next, but I already got that question answered."
"I always go through the missions with the ground team before-hand. You could've been patient."
"Just don't like being kept in the dark." He said while shrugging. "Sorry, I'll behave in the future."
"I'll tell the rest of the ground team to meet up in the comm room. You head there now." She said as she turned back towards her terminal. Making a last check to see if anything else of importance was to be found.
"Aye aye, Commander." She heard Holt said in a sarcastic voice and she could feel him making a mock salute as well. She wasn't gonna give him the satisfaction of reacting. As his footsteps walking away could be heard she silently cursed her gut feeling for allowing him on this ship. Holt was stealthy enough on the battlefield so Shepard would now have to watch herself on her own ship as well. She shook her head to clear her mind of Holt for the moment as she pressed the pad that would broadcast her voice to the rest of the ship.
"All members of the ground team are to meet up in the comm room." Even though they were probably at least one day away from Therum, going through a few things with the team that are gonna work together for the near future would be necessary. "Joker, I'm guessing you've been listening in and already read the message as well?"
"Aye aye, Commander." The pilot said in a voice that imitated Holts' as much as possible. "We'll be there by tomorrow late afternoon."
"Make it early afternoon." Shepard said as she started making her way towards the comm room. She was pleased to see the whole ground team already waiting in the comm room as she got there. But she was not pleased to see that there was several obvious rifts among the ground team. Kaidan and Ashley were standing at attention, being the Alliance soldiers that they were. Garrus and Tali were whispering something to each other and them being other species it was difficult for Shepard to make out exactly what was being said. Holt and Wrex was oddly enough grouping up and having some lively discussion about thresher maws. Shepard didn't hear anything involving stealing kills so at least that argument was behind them.
"Commander, do we have a destination?" Kaidan asked as he and Ashley saluted her.
"We do." She simply said before she turned towards the whole room. "The asari in the vision turned out to be a asari matriarch named Benezia."
"So we go pound some matriarch ass?" Wrex said as he fist bumped himself. His comment made Holt start giggling like an idiot.
"We only have her name, not her location. We got her daughter's location though. An asari doctor by the name Liara. She's on a planet called Therum."
"What's she doing on this planet?" Tali asked.
"Something involving the protheans. Her work there is quite classified."
"Is her daughter working with Saren as well?" Garrus asked.
"We don't know." Not the answer the team was hoping to hear, Shepard noticed.
"And we're certain we're not walking into a trap?" Holt asked.
"You sound scared, Holt." Wrex taunted.
"Just need to know how much firepower to bring."
"What makes you think you'll be part of the team that goes down there to begin with?" Kaidan asked with a hint of anger in his voice. Shepard could see this going out of hand but decided to let them vent some of their issues before she intervened.
"I thought you would jump on any chance of getting me off this ship, even if it's only for a few hours, Lieutenant." Holt added that last word with a tone that was meant to get any sort of response out of Kaidan.
"If it were up to me you would be off this ship permanently." And it seems to have worked. Things had gotten out of control fast and she needed to put a stop to it.
"I'll decide who comes with me anyway so shut up, both of you." She said in her most commanding voice which silenced the two bickering fools. Her gut told her of a plan that she wasn't willing to follow. Her mind was throwing objections left and right but decided to take another chance involving Holt. "Kaidan and Holt, you both will be coming with me to find Liara." Objections were quickly being voiced from the two Alliance soldiers. Garrus and Tali didn't seem to care all that much. Wrex was mumbling something about being left out of all the fun and Holt simply smirked as he saw Kaidan's reaction. Damn her gut and its power over her.